105 maintenance technicians from the 49 health districts of Burundi and from the central level benefited from this training organized by the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) with the support of UNICEF Burundi.
Elisa Revert Santamaría & Odette Kwizera
Muramvya, 27 and 28 octobre 2022. To ensure the effective storage of vaccines, including COVID vaccines, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) of the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight Against AIDS (MSPLS) has strengthened the skills of its maintenance technicians in the preventive maintenance and repair of solar refrigerators.
105 maintenance technicians, including 96 from Burundi's 49 health districts and 9 from the central level (EPI), benefited from this training, supported by UNICEF Burundi with funding from USAID.
Being aware of the important role of the cold chain in maintaining the effectiveness of the vaccines, in improving equity and in increasing immunization coverage, the EPI, with the support of its partners, has clearly improved its equipment by installing equipment approved by the World Health Organisation. Thus, in 2016, EPI began its transition plan to solar refrigerators in Burundi, and in 2018, with the support of UNICEF, the LOGIVAC training center was contracted to train maintenance technicians from the central level and those from the health districts on the installation and preventive maintenance of solar refrigerators. In addition, in 2019, a national maintenance plan for cold chain equipment has been developed to better support their maintenance and repair.
“Three years ago, maintenance technicians were trained in the installation of cold chain equipment in health facilities. During this training, organized in collaboration with UNICEF, the maintenance technicians will learn how to detect and repair faults. Good maintenance of solar refrigerators is important to ensure that vaccines are well preserved and remain effective. Furthermore, well-maintained equipment can operate for up to 10 years, which allows us to save money instead of replacing equipment every year that does not work due to a lack of maintenance", explains Clarisse BUKEYEMEZA, EPI's Head of Logistics.
The training, given by technicians from UNICEF Burundi in collaboration with those from the EPI, was animated by presentations and group work.
“This training was really useful and necessary for us because our equipment often broke down and we were not able to repair it because we did not have the necessary skills. For example, there is a refrigerator that broke down in my district, I tried to fix it, but it didn't work. I had to call a service technician from the central level to come and fix it. It took us about a month. Fortunately, the necessary precautions had been taken to move the vaccines to another health center. But a refrigerator contains a lot of vaccines, and due to the displacement problem, we risked losing all these vaccines”, Léandre BIZINDAVYI, 37, Vaccine Manager and Cold Chain Maintenance Technician at Buye Health District, Ngozi.
Similarly, Evelyne NDAYISHIMIYE, 34, Vaccine Manager at the pharmacy of the Mutaho Health District, Gitega, says she has experienced the same problems, but is now confident: “this training is important for me because it will provide us with the necessary knowledge to manage the vaccines properly”, she said.
UNICEF is a privileged partner of the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight Against AIDS (MSPLS) in the strengthening of the vaccine cold chain, in particular for the provision of cold chain equipment and for the maintenance of these equipments.